Executive Director Don Johnson will occasionally post reflections as he travels to Lutheran Outdoor Ministry sites. Here is his latest entry from his travels recently:
I had an excellent visit to the headquarters of Lutherans Outdoors South Dakota (LOSD) in Sioux Falls on August 26.. What a beautiful office on the campus of Augustana University! In a building that includes the campus Chapel and the offices of the SD Synod. It was too bad Layne Nelson, executive director couldn't be there, but I'm so glad he got to celebrate his father's 80th birthday, In the picture, left to right: Paul Hanson, operations director (and LOM Auctioneer Extrodinaire!); Erica Julius, registrar; Karen Krause development director (Karen is retiring 4 days from now - thank you, Karen, for a wonderful career devoted to the worthiest of causes); Gayle Wisniewski, development coordinator; and Mara Stillson, marketing director (and loyal member of the LOM Terchnology Committee).
I had an excellent visit to the headquarters of Lutherans Outdoors South Dakota (LOSD) in Sioux Falls on August 26.. What a beautiful office on the campus of Augustana University! In a building that includes the campus Chapel and the offices of the SD Synod. It was too bad Layne Nelson, executive director couldn't be there, but I'm so glad he got to celebrate his father's 80th birthday, In the picture, left to right: Paul Hanson, operations director (and LOM Auctioneer Extrodinaire!); Erica Julius, registrar; Karen Krause development director (Karen is retiring 4 days from now - thank you, Karen, for a wonderful career devoted to the worthiest of causes); Gayle Wisniewski, development coordinator; and Mara Stillson, marketing director (and loyal member of the LOM Terchnology Committee).
And then on August 27-28 I had the good fortune to be a presenter at the ELCA Synod Mission Interpreter Coordinators Conference. It was especially good fortune to have the Conference at Joy Ranch, part of the Lutherans Outdoors in South Dakota (LOSD) network of camps (along with Klein Ranch, Outlaw Ranch, and NeSoDak). Joy Ranch is one amazing and beautiful and unique outdoor ministry site. You feel like you are in an old-time western pioneer town (although I'm pretty sure the pioneers were nowhere near as comfortable. The prairie, the lake, the Norwegian Fjord horses, the 5-star comfort of the rooms, the great food, and the hospitality of the staff all add up to an excellent experience. The site director, Dusty Rodiek (on the right in this photo), and the guest services director, Sean McCall, are both new to Lutheran Outdoor Ministries so when you see them at the LOM Annual Conference, November 7-11, at Carol Joy Holling Camp in Nebraska (registration goes live this Thursday, September 1), make sure you give them a warm welcome to the LOM family - they are going to have tons to offer for our network!
Sunday, August 21, was a glorious day at Camp Lutherlyn in Prospect, PA. The Lutherlyn community hosted a huge party to honor Randy Gullickson upon his retirement after 37 years in full-time outdoor ministry executive leadership (starting in 1979 at Luther Park, Danbury, WI, and since 1985 at Lutherlyn). More than 450 persons turned out for the event. LOM was well represented with Mark Burkhardt giving a great speech, Paul Howells, who was the director of outdoor ministries in the LCA was there with wife, Carol, and I was honored to have a part in the festivities. We are all very grateful for Randy's many contributions to LOM - Board member of LOM, president and vice-president of ALOMP, one of the crafters of how outdoor ministry would be organized at the beginning of the ELCA, and member of the outdoor ministry advisory committee to the ELCA. One of the greatest tributes to Randy was that all four of those who served with him as associate directors - Deb, Marnie, RJ, and Lee - were there to make moving testimonials of the effectiveness and inspiration of his leadership. One pf the pictures (clowning around) is of those four holding Randy horizontally - if they look familiar it's because Deb Deb Brut Roberts currently serves as associated director at Lutherlyn, Randy Youngquist-Thurow serves as executive director at Agape/Kure Beach, NC, and Lee Lindeman serves as executive director at Lake Chautauqua Lutheran Center, NY.